Sunday, October 21, 2007

Canadian All-time Top 100 Includes Arcade Fire, Neil, Sloan...

Canadian journalist Bob Mersereau decided to write a book on the top 100 Canadian records of all time. If you're like me, you might be asking why?

"There really isn’t a good reference for Canadian albums. You look at the Rolling Stone book, and there’s Neil, Joni, Leonard (Cohen), the Band and Alanis, and that’s it. And there’s so many more that only we get, as Canadians. Outside of Canada, Gordon Lightfoot gets trashed as this MOR singer, and they don’t get why we’d want to hear someone sing about pussy willows, cattails, soft winds and roses."
Here's the top 20...

1. Harvest, Neil Young (Reprise, 1972)
2. Blue, Joni Mitchell (Reprise, 1970)
3. After the Gold Rush, Neil Young (Reprise, 1970)
4. Music From Big Pink, The Band (Capitol, 1968)
5. Fully Completely, The Tragically Hip (MCA, 1992)
6. Jagged Little Pill, Alanis Morisette (Maverick, 1995)
7. The Band, The Band (Capitol, 1969)
8. Funeral, Arcade Fire (Merge, 2004)
9. Moving Pictures, Rush (Anthem, 1981)
10. American Woman, The Guess Who (RCA, 1970)
11. Songs of Leonard Cohen, Leonard Cohen (Columbia, 1967)
12. Reckless, Bryan Adams (A&M, 1984)
13. Five Days in July, Blue Rodeo (Warner, 1993)
14. Twice Removed, Sloan (Geffen, 1994)
15. Up To Here, The Tragically Hip (MCA, 1989)
16. Everybody Knows This is Nowhere, Neil Young with Crazy Horse (Reprise, 1969)
17. 2112, Rush (Mercury 1976)
18. Court and Spark, Joni Mitchell (Asylum, 1974)
19. Whale Music, Rheostatics (Sire, 1992)
20. Acadie, Daniel Lanois (Opal, 1989)

I'll sign off on Neil Young and Arcade Fire, but this may be the only time that Rush ever makes its way onto this blog in a positive way. For the record, I'm surprised there's no Cowboy Junkies...